Williams: Speak out for climate action

Colin Merry

Published
5:04 pm EDT, Tuesday, May 14, 2019

To the Record Patriot:

Another Mother’s Day has come and gone.

While I always enjoy this time spent with family and friends, the knowledge that Americans are projected to spend a record $25 billion on Mother’s Day this year detracts from that pleasure some. (National Retail Federation 2019)

In the face of this commercialization, I choose to reflect on Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 “Mother’s Day Proclamation for Peace”. Howe, an abolitionist, feminist, and social justice advocate, envisioned a special day when women around the world could gather in groups for discussion and activism. While her proclamation was made several decades before Mother’s Day was officially established in America, I feel it captures what many mothers treasure more than brunch and flowers.

Howe enjoins her peers: “Arise, then… women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!”

Avowing that “we will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies”, she called for “a congress of women to…promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, and the great and general interests of peace.”

Howe’s proclamation was a mother’s cry to end war. Now it’s our turn to add our voices in a cry to end the war on nature.

Mothers and children are impacted most by the world’s disasters (Georgetown Institute 2015). How many will be lost to storms, fires, heat waves and floods – all linked directly to climate change? How many more will die in hunger, disease, armed conflict, or mass migrations –all conditions exacerbated by the same?

We cannot honor motherhood, if we do not honor the Earth, whose life systems sustain us all. Please pay respect to all mothers by speaking out for climate action. To learn about solutions and what you can do, check out citizensclimatelobby.org.